The glow. The pose. The energy. ✨🧡📸 of @bencashbaby for her birthday shoot, Pure elegance thank you for trusting us.
#photography #portrait #lagosphotographer
Makeup: @tile_ewa
Dress : @talyan_couture
AFTER THE ROSES 🥀
I entertained the fantasy…
I mistook attention for intention,
noise for connection,
and moments for meaning.
So I stepped back
wrote my truth in ink,
and let the roses fall where they may.
I’m not over love,
just over performances.
When it finds me again,
it will meet me whole…
not waiting.
💝
Creative Director @therealqumi
Photography @mykellens
Makeup @olikokopops for @oliviabeautystudio_
Hair @nancygracebeauty
Props @blackiechan_x
Styling @qumi_fashion
Videography @labiciclicks
Edit and colorist @jude_achi
#visualnarrative #ValentineSeries #qumifashion #editorialseries #fashioneditorials
Act iii
Today is red.
Not just the color but the feeling of finally letting my heart speak after years of teaching it silence.
This is the chapter where I allowed myself to believe again.
Where the veil is not to hide, but to soften the world.
Where love felt like warm light through closed eyelids.
I wore red like a promise
a promise that maybe this time, the story would be different.
That maybe vulnerability would not be mistaken for weakness.
That maybe longing would finally meet its home.
There is lace over my head,
but it is not shame.
It is hope wrapped delicately,
like something fragile you are afraid to drop.
For a long time I stood outside the gates of love,
watching it happen for everyone else,
telling myself I was whole alone
and I was.
But wholeness does not cancel desire.
Strength does not erase softness.
This is the moment before questions.
Before doubts.
Before reality clears its throat.
This is the moment where the heart says,
“Let me try.”
The feathers, the fabric, the velvet reds
they are not just fashion.
They are the bloom of emotion,
the intoxication of finally being seen,
the sweetness of believing someone has chosen you gently.
If yesterday was the ending,
today is the memory of how it once felt to rise.
Because every fall has a peak,
and every disappointment once wore the face of excitement.
I am not hiding under this veil
I am stepping into a dream,
fully aware that dreams are temporary,
but choosing to feel them anyway.
And maybe that is the bravest form of love:
not the forever,
but the willingness to open your chest
knowing the world is not always kind to open things.
So today, I celebrate the version of me
who believed.
Who blushed.
Who glowed.
Who allowed her heart to beat loudly again.
This is the bloom.
The warmth.
The illusion if you must call it that
but it was real while it lived.
And sometimes,
that is enough.
💌
Creative director @therealqumi
Photographer. @mykellens
Stylist. @qumi_fashion
Makeup @olikokopops for @oliviabeautystudio_
Hair @nancygracebeauty
Props @blackiechan_x
#visualnarrative #valentineseries #qumifashion #editorialseries
Acts iv
There is a phase of love that no one prepares you for
the phase where you are no longer chasing affection,
but sitting quietly with the version of yourself that once did.
Black is not anger.
It is not revenge.
It is not bitterness.
Black is clarity after illusion.
The veil is not for mourning a person,
it is for releasing the version of me that tolerated silence, confusion, and half-hearted love.
The rain behind me is not sadness.
It is cleansing.
A reminder that disappointment can wash you without drowning you.
The telephone exists, but I am not reaching for it.
Not because I cannot call,
but because I finally understand that some conversations are meant to remain unanswered
so that self-respect can speak louder.
The memories remain
not to hurt, not to haunt,
but to prove that I lived, I felt, and I learned.
I do not erase chapters of my life; I archive them.
The mask slips.
Not just theirs, but mine too.
Because sometimes we fall in love with performances,
and sometimes we perform in love just to be chosen.
The candle still burns.
Because even in self-reflection, hope is not extinguished.
I am not closing my heart;
I am simply learning how to hold it with both hands before offering it again.
This is not a rejection of love.
This is a return to self.
A quiet decision to know my worth so deeply
that I never have to search for it in someone else’s eyes again.
Some endings are loud.
Some arrive dressed in silk, in shadows, in honesty.
And in that honesty, I meet myself
not broken, not hardened,
but aware.
🖤
Creative director @therealqumi
Photography @mykellens
Makeup @olikokopops for @oliviabeautystudio_
Hair @nancygracebeauty
Props @blackiechan_x
Styling @qumi_fashion
#visualnarrative #ValentineSeries #qumifashion #editorialseries #fashioneditorials
Act ii :
There is a season where your heart is no longer guarded,
but it isn’t rushing either.
A gentle space between healing and feeling
where softness returns without fear.
White is not innocence.
It is peace.
It is choosing to remain open
even after learning how fragile emotions can be.
The veil is not a promise,
it is hope.
The flowers are not for anyone
they are simply proof that something inside me is still blooming.
There is a season where the heart is not guarded,
where love still feels like a promise waiting to be kept.
A softness that believes without evidence,
and hopes without hesitation.
And in this quiet readiness,
I am not searching,
I am simply allowing love to find a place to land… if it ever chooses to.
🤍
Creative director @therealqumi
Photography @mykellens
Makeup @olikokopops for @oliviabeautystudio_
Hair @nancygracebeauty
Props @blackiechan_x
Styling @qumi_fashion
#visualnarrative #ValentineSeries #qumifashion #editorialseries #fashioneditorials
Act I
Some chapters don’t arrive with music or fireworks.
They begin in quiet rooms, wrapped in layers,
where you answer calls but not questions,
where conversations happen, yet your heart stays folded.
Before desire.
Before vulnerability.
Before the world asks you to open your hands.
Not every beginning is loud
some start in silence, where you slowly remember who you were before expectations learned your name.
Creative director @therealqumi
📸 @mykellens for @mainstreamvisuals
💄 @oliviabeautystudio_
💇♀️ @nancygracebeauty
🥋 @qumi_fashion
Props @blackiechan_x
#visualnarrative #ValentineSeries #qumifashion #editorialseries #fashioneditorials
